locking PC settings from mischief makers!

hello all!
i am at a place of buisness where some of the other folks in the office play practical jokes by slowings ones mouse down or changing the desktop backgrounds featuring rival football teams, changing different startup and application sounds etc. our current IT guy can actually login as an administrator on my computer and change registry settings example: locking a background so i cannot change it or putting scotch tape on my laser mouse making it seem as if my mouse is fouling out.
first off: how do i lock my computer settings without locking the PC? i know nothing about domains or servers or workgroups but i know we have all of it and i am the administrator on my work computer so i have access to pretty much any of the settings on this pc.secondly: i would like to hear a few harmless ideas from some of you all at ITTOOLBOX. i am interested to know so i have a few tricks up my sleeve the next time they pull a fast one on me. i have been pranked three times just today! (the tape under the mouse, the keyboard plugged into the mouse port so from at an angle, it appears to be plugged in correctly, my background changed, my theme set to high contrast, cursor trails, desktop screen flipped 180 in the vga settings, and turned the ring volume up on my office phone all the way! you should have seen what happened here! the guys who did this of coarse were all together and sitting in the office next to mine, (glass doors and walls) so they were all looking at me when they called my phone. i slapped the phone right as it rang and jumped back in my chair... not 2 seconds later the entire office began laughing.
so i guess i have been the center of attention for a while here because i am only 22 and everyone else in the office is in there mid thirtys to late fortys. i need some ideas for pranks to get them back but at the same time i would like to secure some of the settings on the pc without having to give up my admin priv.
any and all ideas are welcome! thanks

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Most companies don't allow their users to be local administrators of
their own machines, so you actually have more permissions than you would
elsewhere.
Your computer is part of a network domain, so there will always be
someone with more rights on the computer than you - the network
administrator. There are a few ways to try to remove those permissions,
and I'll bet all of them are grounds for termination (remove Domain
Admins from local Administrators group; disjoin computer from domain;
etc.). If these things happened once or twice, it would be a joke, but
what you are describing sounds more like harassment and in the U.S. that
behavior seems to usually end in gunfire.

1. ask for a USB keyboard/mouse, since they don't care what USB port
they are plugged into.
2. whenever something gets changed on your computer, call the network
admin to fix it. When he realizes he has to do work because of these
pranks he'll probably tell everyone else to cut it out. If he's not
smart enough to realize that, tell your boss you can't do any work until
the net admin fixes your computer.
3. check the volume on your phone whenever you've been away from your
desk.
4. document whenever each incident occurs - for evidence in the
harassment lawsuit.
5. refresh your resume.
6. work on a big project then quit the week before it is due.

You need to start looking around for another job. This is not a environment
I could work in.

If your IT guy is part of the problem, you have to turn him/her in to
management. IT has to be able to access every workstation in order to do
their job. If he doesn't stop, then escalate. Don't kid yourself, even
locking up the PC can't stop an IT guy from accessing your workstation. If
he can log on and change the background, he can unlock your PC. I do it
every day when a user leaves their workstation and doesn't log off.

I'm not kidding.. Get another job. It isn't worth it, working in a office
with a bunch of idiots like that....

How can I protect my system from pranks
- One answer: Speak to company management. Do not try to take on the pranksters. They could be having fun or baiting you to do something stupid that could be used against you in the future.
- Based on what you said you have admin rights to your PC. While this would allow you to protect the local system domain policy is normally used to control system security.
- Generally policy works from the top down. The policy closest to you wins. While this might allow policy you create to override domain policy this could violate company policy.
Secondly you want to know what you do to get back at the prankster.That easy, don't do anything. Best to information IT when your PC is not working normally, let your manager know that you keep having these odd issues with your office equipment..
If your company and or manager are true professionals they will put a stop to this childish behavior.
If you don't get support from management it might be time to find another place to work.

Ok firstly it sounds like he isnt asking to get back in a mean way, in other words they are all having fun with it..so stop suggesting things that could hurt his job future, or have everyone running around bitching behind his back because he couldnt take a joke(again thats assuming they arnt trying to be mean about it).

Now as stated you cant keep the network admin out.....but....if you dont need the network(means internet etc) or for some fun...use your local admin settings to take yourself off the network. :) A network admin cant touch your pc if he doesn't have a local admin account B even if he does it creates work for him to add you back on..PC's DO accidentally fall of the network, so the first few times it wont look suspicious if you can keep a straight face :)

Another one to pull(unfortunately doesn't work on xp/2k systems) on their pcs(if your still running NT..unlikely i know...i miss this one). open up a command prompt: Start>run>cmd then right click or hold ALT+SHIFT+Space and go to edit. once in edit change it to always open in full screen. then search for command.com or go to winnt/windows>system32>command.com and put it in the startup folder for all users: C:documents and settings>all users>start menu>programs>startup>command.com

what that does(on a NT/98/95) machine is lets windows load to the desktop then goes to command prompt, so even if they are tech savvy enough to know to type in win in the prompt to start windows it goes right back. the fix is easy as well either A. go to startup in command prompt and delete it, or B start in safe mode and delete the file from startup.

few others would be to change the screen resolution to something not supported by the monitor(safe mode to fix, or knowing all your short cut commands) so that their screen is just black.

Or since your network seems to be rather lax i would be surprised if net send is still enabled. so do this: find the name of the computer(s) that you want to send the message to and open up a blank notepad file. type in : net send (computer name, or for the whole network just a *) (then the message). so a real one would look like: "net send JOSEPHPC I'm watching you" the command can be entered multiple times but make sure each one is on a separate line(hit enter). If your whole staff isnt in on these pranks DO NOT USE THE * command. save the file as .bat so (prank.bat), and put it in one or all of their startup folders the same as the command.com one. this way each time they log in they send the message(s) to all the other pranksters. and if you want to remain anonymous make sure to add your PC to the list so that you get it too, then you can act like you don't know how it happened :)

darkvision is correct. I was'nt implying that they were trying to be mean. It's actually just harmless pranks we play on each other. I'm not a very professional person outside work and the level at work is very laxed however, everyone knows how far they can take it. I think a few of the things darkvision said were perfect ideas for getting back at pranksters. As I said before, it's a professinal environment but people have a sense of humor so as long as no harm is done, we can keep up the jokes. I superimposed my bosses head on Patrick Swazey, made copies, and posted them all over the plant. Last week I misplaced my keys so I sent an email out to everyone in the company saying I lost my keys and i just so happened to have a photo of an item I was taking a picture of on my desk earlier that day (for my job) so I thought it would be a good idea to send the picture because my keys were in the background......This was a bad idea because everyone in the company was wondering why I have a picture of my keys, then they are wondering why, (even if I have a picture), why am I sending it for everyone to see just because of some missing keys! So I got about 30 smart as* responses back. The person who actually found them didnt tell me but made a ransom video and emailed it back to me and copying the individuals who had commented before. So I guess thats the type of humor thats going on up here.

Hi
If your using XP you used to be able to get from Sysinternals a "Blue
Screen" screensaver. You placed it on the hard drive then set it as the
screensaver, when your screensaver came up it looked as tho your machine
had gone into an endless reboot sequence, the only way to switch it off was
hit the space bar. Harmless but boy can you get them going with it, I had
one bloke writing down the error messages until we got sick of making him
look the fool nearly ten minutes we had him going for.
Stick on your own machine & get the IT bloke if your lucky
Greg